.
A well-known feminist, psychologist, writer, former political prisoner in Egypt, she lived in exile for years due to numerous death threats Nawal El Saadawi was a political prisoner and exiled from Egypt for years. Now she has returned to Cairo, "Women and girls are beside boys in the streets," El Saadawi says . They are—and we are calling for justice, freedom and equality, and real democracy and a new constitution, no discrimination between men and women, no discrimination between Muslims and Christians, to change the system, to change the people who are governing us, the system and the people, and to have a real democracy. That’s what women are saying and what men are saying.
This revolution, the young people who started the revolution and who are continuing to protect it, they are not political, ordinary young men and women. They don’t belong to the right or the left, or Muslim. There was not a single Islamic religious slogan in the streets. Not one. They were shouting for justice, equality, freedom, and that Mubarak and his regime should go, and we need to change the system and bring people who are honest. Egypt is living in corruption, false elections, oppression of women, of young people, unemployment. So the revolution came, it was too late. This revolution is too late, but anyway, it came.
El Saadawi has worked tirelessly on behalf of women in Egypt and the Middle East. Her novels and books on the situation of women in Egyptian and Arab society have had a deep impact on successive generations of young women. She is the founder and current leader of the Arab Women Solidarity Association, which was closed by government decree in 1991.
Her writings and activism made her the target of public condemnation and even imprisonment. Former President Sadat put her in prison and she was not released until one month after his assassination. El Saadawi was forced into exile in the mid-1990s after state suppression of secular thinkers forced her abroad to work.
No comments:
Post a Comment